This invention relates to a display system for use as an educational aid particularly for providing students and the public with an improved understanding of environmental matters on a global or continental scale.
Public concern for the state of the environment has grown over the last few years with increasing evidence of such global disruptions as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and ozone depletion. More than ever, there is a need for an accurate, effective means to make these issues comprehensible to the public so that they can understand their complexity, gain a sense of the role the public can play in resolving the problems, and make more informed decisions regarding the environment in future.
Environmental issues have a number of unique features which should be considered in an attempt to communicate in this area:
(a) They are complex problems, based on an intricate web of global interrelationships which ignore political boundaries. Thus, one of the primary abilities of the display must be to show how everything in the world is connected. PA1 (b) They are human problems, caused by us and ultimately affecting us. The display should help us understand environmental problems on a personal level, and our responsibility in solving them. PA1 (c) Most are global problems, widespread and generally growing in extent. Another task then must be to communicate magnitudes, and bridge the gap between global and human scales. PA1 (d) They are dynamic problems, in a state of constant flux; with new understanding emerging every day. The display must be capable of illustrating change, and helping people relate to the various time frames on which environmental problems operate. PA1 (a) An Interaction Web: which would produce diagrams of interrelationships between key variables in a particular issue or set of issues. Users could ask "What if?" questions of this network, and observe the effects of the changes on other variables. For example, someone might ask about the results of food shortages in the Third World. The interaction web would show how a decrease in food supply may lead to unrest and political instability, which in turn affects policies for soil conservation, which further reduces food supply. PA1 (b) An Action Guide: which lists ways that the attitudes and behaviors of an individual affect the environmental situation generally and in reference to particular issues. A print out of these suggestions should be made available. PA1 (c) A Scale Bridge: which relates the extent of global disruptions to an immediately comprehensible size, such as the property on which the Exhibit is located, or perhaps a square unit marked on the floor around the display. PA1 (d) A Time Monitor: which shows how an issue is proceeding, and provides comparisons with the past to show rate of change and projected futures. Again, a way to compare units must be devised, something like an environmental clock, marking how many people were born that day on the planet, how many species were wiped out, how much soil lost, etc. Another feature of this display should be a news line, through which users could access a list of recent news items on a particular issue. Items which contain good news (successful conservation measures, etc.) can be highlighted. PA1 (a) It should be an interactive format, offering a range of choices to the user in accessing information. Learning is most effective when people ar actively involved. As they navigate their way through a particular problem, they select a pattern of information uniquely tailored to their interests and level of comprehension, thereby promoting a more personal understanding. This is especially important in environmental issues, which can appear overwhelming and faceless. PA1 (b) It should be capable of expansion, and adaptable to new issues as they arise. PA1 (c) It should be able to plug into the extensive network of environmental information, and flexible enough to incorporate new information as it becomes available. This updating allows an accurate depiction of changing environmental conditions, and is an incentive for users to return to the system throughout the year. PA1 (d) It must provide some means of relating events on a global scale to everyday experience, in both the spatial and temporal dimensions. PA1 (a) It must be transferable, if not in its entirety, then through the software that drives it. PA1 (b) It should be useful for guided situations and self-initiated learning, for groups and for individuals. PA1 (c) It should break from or extend traditional computer or video productions. As home video capabilities become more advanced, standard interpretive displays are bound to become obsolete. A unique and dramatic format, incorporating a specialized configuration of input and output devices is unlikely to be replicated for home use, and will ensure a greater audience and a longer life span of interest. Another reason for an alternative format is that the undifferentiated mixture of fact and fiction on television may lower the credibility of the video medium, especially for children. Television is seen as a source of entertainment first; only rarely is it perceived as an accurate reflection of reality. PA1 (a) Scripting Device: PA1 (b) Output Device: PA1 (c) Control Device:
Therefore this problem might be viewed as requiring four different displays, each tackling a different aspect of the issue in question: complexity, human factors, size, and time scales.
It would be a relatively simple matter to design any of the previously described displays. However, the challenge is to develop a system that goes as far as possible to integrate the four display functions into a single unit, in order to promote a fuller, more realistic understanding of the problem situation.
For example, to integrate the "scale bridge" function with the "time monitor" function, a square marked on the floor serving as the base unit for size comparisons could also have its edges inset with a series of sixty lights, which are activated one after another every second so that each minute a circuit is completed around the square. It is both a time piece and a unit of area. A read out in the square would indicate how many units of forest are lost in Manitoba in a minute, or they could blink in unison each time a unit of forest is lost.
The integrated system should have the following characteristics:
Some other general considerations affecting the design of the system:
In short, the system should strike a balance between being too simple and common to be of interest, and being so complex that software cannot be transferred and is too expensive to update.
Regardless of its final form, the system should contain a means of turning raw information into a presentation (a scripting device), a means of displaying the presentation (an output device), and a means of activating and manipulating the presentation (a control device). Factors relating to these items are as follows:
fast and easy to use; PA2 flexible; PA2 easy to learn; PA2 creates standard presentation "templates" for a range of issues; PA2 uses inexpensive hardware; PA2 patches into the network of environmental information through modem or other means; PA2 allows people to relate to global sizes and time spans; PA2 strikes a balance with other displays, neither drowning them out or being overshadowed itself; PA2 communicates to groups or individuals; PA2 avoids simple video monitors for the reasons discussed above, or uses them to supplement a more vivid and tangible form of display; PA2 The form of an alternative output device should be responsive to the way our senses operate. For instance, several of the following operations propose a spherical output device, because it is a good form for communicating ideas about the extent and location of environmental problems, but it is hard to see in its entirety. These options therefore either ask people to move around the globe, or involve a mobile globe. PA2 allows the user maximum flexibility to tailor the message to his interests and abilities; PA2 easily customized to provide control options specific to each presentation; PA2 fun and easy to use; PA2 accessible to all ages and handicapped people; PA2 control device and the output device should be in the same cone of vision, to keep the users involved in the presentation, rather than splitting their attention between controlling and observing.
At present no display system for educational material and environmental issues is known which provides a satisfactory solution for filling the above parameters. Various illustrations of parts or the whole of the world are shown in the following patents many of which include devices for illuminating or indicating particular parts of the map for example, cities or states for educational purposes. However none of these are suitable for displaying environmental issues.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,455,209 (Anderson) provides a weather map having a plurality of stations representing towns or cities outlined thereon and provided with means for visually indicating at each station the present or forecasted weather conditions of the station.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,557 (Clossey) discloses a world map game which has a number of separate points on the map which can be illuminated to identify particular features such as cities or countries.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,359 (Erickson) discloses an educational game in which a map has illuminated parts thereon to identify for example the various states.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,666 (Triplett) discloses a walk-in globe with the features of the world illustrated on the inner surface so that the whole of the globe can be observed from the interior of the sphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,705 (Barth) discloses a map having a thin opaque cover which can be pierced by pins to allow light to shine through at various locations chosen by the person inserting the pins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,941 (McGuire) discloses an educational device for learning the locations and names of the various states of the United States using a device which has points which can be illuminated to indicate particular ones of the states.
None of the above devices is however in any way suitable for displaying educational materials in relation to environmental issues apart from the very simplistic point of natural geographical locations of various points of interest.